I am thankful to my dad, mom, sister, brother, and grandparents for setting such fantastic examples of lives lived well, and for teaching me from a young age to set big goals and work hard toward them. I also thank my employers, Medtronic, for many years of tuition support and professional development. Especially Tom Keenan, Pat Zimmerman, Michael Soma, Jared Hanson, Nancy Figueroa, Michelle Nelson, and Daryle Peterson who have shown endless patience to help me balance my work schedule with the demands of classes, teaching, and research. I am extremely grateful to students and faculty in the Statistics Education cohort at the University of Minnesota and to Laura Le, Sandy Weisberg, Roxy Peck, Sashank Varma, Tim Jacobbe, Beth Chance and Marsha Lovett for thoughtful feedback supporting my dissertation research. I thank Don Richards and Michelle Everson for taking an interest in a student they didn’t know and completely changing the trajectory of his life. Lastly, I thank my advisors, Joan Garfield and Bob delMas, for much guidance and encouragement, and most of all for taking a chance on a part-time student who just loves teaching statistics.

i Abstract This study chronicles the creation of an assessment tool that quantifies cognitive transfer outcomes for introductory statistics students. Literature suggested that outcomes associated with cognitive transfer are closely aligned with statistical thinking and are indicative of students’ ability to apply learning to novel scenarios beyond the classroom.

No assessment tool had been developed and published for the purpose of measuring cognitive transfer outcomes among statistics students. The results of this study suggest that the Introductory Statistics Understanding and Discernment Outcomes (I-STUDIO) assessment tool may effectively serve this purpose.

The assessment tool was developed according to a rigorous protocol of expert feedback and iterative piloting. Data were collected and analyzed from a nationwide sample of nearly 2,000 students attending a wide variety of post-secondary institutions, and the I-STUDIO instrument was found to measure both forward-reaching and backward-reaching high road transfer outcomes with good psychometric properties.

Data analysis indicated high reliability and diverse validity evidence. This evidence included confirmatory factor analysis models with compelling alignment to the theoretical model and analysis of qualitative themes among expert feedback. Analysis of scoring consistency also showed strong inter-rater agreement. Although the sample size of the scored responses is somewhat small by convention for item response theory, a graded response model generally showed good item functioning. Furthermore, the data suggested that the I-STUDIO assessment estimated student ability with consistent precision across a wide range of above-average and below-average students.

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curricula. Additionally, the I-STUDIO instrument can be used to measure the effect of curriculum changes designed to improve transfer outcomes. Furthermore, the instrument and scoring rubric were designed to accommodate diverse curricula for the purpose of refining course outcomes.

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Acknowledgements

Abstract

List of Tables

List of Figures

1 Introduction

1.1 Rationale for the Study

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 I-STUDIO Assessment Tool

1.4 Structure of the Dissertation

2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction to Literature Review

2.1.1 Consensus of traditional approach based on Normal distribution theory. 7 2.1.2 Summary of efforts to retool the introductory curriculum.

1.1 Rationale for the Study Statistical thinking has been described in part to concern comprehension of “how, when, and why” a statistical framework can inform some inquiry (Ben-Zvi & Garfield, 2005). In learning and cognition research, an important mechanism by which students accomplish this sort of comprehension is sometimes referred to as cognitive transfer—or simply transfer. Singley and Anderson (1989) defined transfer to concern “how knowledge acquired in one situation applies (or fails to apply) in other situations.” Similarly, Perkins and Salomon (1988) described transfer as “knowledge or skill associated with one context reach[ing] out to enhance another.” Additionally, researchers noted a number of specific types of transfer including vertical transfer, near transfer, far transfer, and negative transfer (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Perkins & Salomon, 1988; Singley & Anderson, 1989).

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